By now, the change in the situation in the world has become very obvious.

At present the views of Soviet Russia on the war were divided into two factions, one of which believed that the struggle should be waged resolutely in pursuit of the unification of the whole of Russia.

On the other hand, there should be a short-term peace, and Soviet Russia, which itself was relatively young, was now in shambles in terms of industry and even more miserable in terms of economy.

At present, the grain shortage in the country is quite serious, and it is urgent to recuperate for a period of time, first of all, to ensure agricultural production.

This faction believes that no matter what the cost, if they could buy 5 to 10 years of development, they would face a completely different situation.

In addition to the situation in Russia, the Anglo-Irish War in the British Empire is also very anxious.

Oddly enough, the current insurgency in Ireland was nothing compared to the strength of the British Empire, but the British government was unwilling to deploy more regular British troops in Ireland.

With the exception of the two regular divisions sent at the beginning of the conflict, the British formed only one military police organization to assist the two regular divisions, and there was no other operation.

This also turned the British civil war into an espionage operation on both sides. Today the IRA killed 18 British agents in Dublin, and tomorrow the British military police will go to the square where the marching crowd gathers to attack the crowd.

Such back-and-forth retaliatory acts have caused casualties on both sides to rise rapidly in a short period of time, and hundreds of innocent people have even been shot dead.

However, most of the targets of the IRA were British officials and military figures, which also made the hatred of the Irish people directly transferred to the British army.

Even if dozens of IRAN soldiers were killed under British martial law laws, they would not have been able to stop the frequent clashes between the two sides and the rising death toll.

In the first two months of 1921, the British suffered 432 and 435 casualties, respectively; The Irish side suffered 577 and 622 casualties (including civilians) respectively.

As March ticked, the situation in the UK and Ireland was already on the same page.

As one of the leaders of the IRA, Tom Barry, decided to take his less than 100 men to do a big job.

Tom Barry's so-called big vote was actually to ambush a small detachment of British troops.

Of course, the size of this squad was not small, the total number was about one regiment or so, more than 1,200 British soldiers.

Well, besieging 1,200 British soldiers on a scale of less than 100 men was indeed a whim of Tom Barry, and he really did it.

On 11 March 1921, under the command of Tom Barry, the Irish Republican Army encircled the British regiment.

Although the encirclement and raid in the early stage were very smooth, the inferiority in numbers and equipment quickly caused Tom Barry's army to be routed in an instant.

Fortunately, this republican army is not all fools, and knows the importance of avoiding being surrounded by British troops as much as possible.

As long as they were not surrounded by British troops, they still had a chance to escape, no matter how heavy the casualties were.

But if they were completely surrounded by British troops, according to the current dire situation in Ireland and the British, the fate of these IRA soldiers would be to be executed.

The result is also obvious, this Irish army of about 100 people, named the West Cork Republican Army, on the premise of suffering nearly 50 casualties, also caused more than 20 deaths to the British army on the opposite side, which is quite a good record.

With the overall backwardness of numbers and equipment, it is not easy to create such a large number of casualties for the British army.

The attack was like opening a Pandora's box, and the IRA targeted the British army, launching several attacks on the British army in a short period of time.

First, two days later, on March 13, the IRAs of County Carey attacked a train at the Headford crossing, derailing the train and killing more than 20 British soldiers and wounding hundreds of others.

Because of the surprise attack, the Irish Republican Army suffered less than 10 casualties, and with a few civilian casualties, it was the most beautiful victory in the Irish War of Independence to date.

Still in March, in the town of Mill Street, the IRA launched another assault on British troops, inflicting dozens more casualties on British troops.

Although most of these attacks were relatively small, the casualties were only in the dozens.

However, the Irish army was very fond of such attacks, and the frequent attacks made the British army unable to guard against them, and the hatred of the IRA rose to the extreme.

Of course, if there is a success in the surprise attack, there will naturally be a failure.

In the two attacks at Upton and Colommalte, the IRA did not inflict casualties on the British troops, but were caught off guard by the British troops, who had prepared in advance, causing dozens of casualties.

In February and March 1921, the number of IRA attacks on British troops increased suddenly with 16 and 51 attacks, respectively.

The largest operation took place in Dublin, the largest city in the Irish region. Hundreds of IRA soldiers directly occupied Dublin city center and burned down the Customs House.

The Customs House is the administrative centre of local government in Ireland and symbolizes British rule in the Irish region.

The IRA burned down the Customs House to convey a sign that British rule in Ireland was already fragile.

The attacks in the Irish region were a headache for the British government. This guerrilla behavior of the IRA also led the British government to misestimate it as a force that could not be defeated militarily.

Coupled with the fact that the IRA was no longer satisfied with the struggle in Ireland and burned the war to British ports, it also made the British government even more troublesome.

However, the IRA is not a cohesive force. Although the nominal Republic of Ireland had been established, the IRA remained under the control of various minor chieftains, and the powers of Ireland's nominal Chief of Staff and Minister of Defence were too limited.

This also has the advantage that Ireland as a whole is not as united as it might seem.

Unlike Southern Ireland, which seeks independence, parts of Northern Ireland want autonomy rather than independence.

This also led to a conceptual conflict between the IRA in the North and the IRA in the South, and the Irish Republican Government demanded that the IRA in the North launch a surprise attack on the British army and maintain the same position as the IRA South.

However, the Irish Republican Army in the north has not clashed with the British government in force since the conflict began.

This gave the British government hope of dividing the power of Ireland. The British government promoted the IRA as an anti-Protestant force, encouraging royalists among the Irish Protestants to support Britain and dissociating themselves from the anti-Protestant IRA.

Under the impetus of the British government, various British media will involuntarily mention the religious beliefs of British soldiers killed by the IRA.

Of course, the soldiers who were killed were all Protestant, and most of the soldiers who survived were Catholic.

In this way, the British wanted to awaken the Irish Protestants to the Catholics, and to win the sympathy of the Protestants for the cruel tactics of the IRA against the British army.

It is somewhat surprising that the British government has given up the option of escalating the conflict in Ireland, and the British government has never called for war fiercely since the outbreak of the conflict.

Winston Churchill, the future Prime Minister of the British Empire and a current member of the British Cabinet, faced with such a situation, directly said: "What is the alternative? It used to be an iron-fisted repression on a small corner of the empire, and you came and went, and corpses were everywhere. We can only condone the consequences of such a strategy when the state needs to protect itself. But now, no reasonable person can assert that this is a question of self-preservation. ”

The bad news for the British Empire was that the atrocities of the British Empire were exposed by the Irish Republican Army, and were even secretly printed and distributed to a large number of domestic and foreign media outlets and politicians in many great powers.

This also led some countries to favor the IRA, believing that British rule in Ireland was inhumane.

Even Pope Benedict XV, in a recent letter, encouraged both the British and Irish sides to think soberly and end the current dispute in the form of an agreement.

Benedict XV's statement angered the British, who had previously asked the Pope to speak out on condemning the Irish rebellion in order to influence the Catholics in the IRA.

But unexpectedly, Pope Benedict XV openly chose to support Ireland and encourage fair communication between the rebellious Ireland and the British government, which made the British side angrily declare: "The Pope is asking His Majesty's Government and the Irish murderer gang to be on an equal footing." ”

3000 words for the second update, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

Today continues to be 10,000 days, has been more 6000/10000, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

The last one and a half points ago.

(End of chapter)